Two projects led by researchers from CDE have been awarded funding under a new national research alliance aimed at advancing tropical climate and weather research for Singapore and Southeast Asia.
On 5 September 2025, Professor Liu Bin, NUS Deputy President (Research and Technology), signed a Memorandum of Understanding with partners from the National Environment Agency, A*STAR, and Nanyang Technological University, to establish the Climate and Weather Research Alliance Singapore (CAWRAS).
As part of this initiative, CAWRAS will implement a S$25 million Weather Science Research Programme (WSRP) funded under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 Plan. The programme provides funding for 10 initial research projects, two of which are led by CDE researchers:
- AI foundation models for regional weather prediction: Asst Prof Zhu Lailai (Mechanical Engineering) will be leading a project to establish a general framework for fine-tuning existing AI Foundation Models tailored to high-resolution regional weather prediction in the Maritime Continent. The aim is to strengthen extreme weather detection, with aviation identified as a priority application.
- Transforming complex ensemble data into actionable tropical weather forecasts: A team led by Asst Prof He Xiaogang (Civil and Environmental Engineering) will be developing the Tropical Ensemble Model Post-processing with Explainable Scenario (TEMPEST) system to interpret ensemble forecasts through novel clustering algorithms.
Prof Liu said: “NUS welcomes this national research alliance as an integral part of our commitment to research and innovation in the areas of sustainability and climate change. Leveraging our research strengths such as urban climate modelling, hydroclimatology, artificial intelligence, and foundation modelling, we are excited to contribute significantly on a national level to Singapore's weather prediction capabilities while nurturing the next generation of weather and climate scientists.”
In addition to the two projects from CDE, a further three projects from other NUS faculties have also been awarded funding under the research programme.
Led by the Centre for Climate Research Singapore, CAWRAS brings together leading research institutions to expand weather science capabilities at the national level.
Beyond advancing tropical climate and weather research, the new alliance aims to nurture a local talent pipeline in weather and climate science. In a statement marking the launch, the CAWRAS members said they aimed to leverage high-resolution modelling, artificial intelligence, and extensive observational networks to enhance weather prediction, with plans to expand its scope to include climate research on longer timescales in future.
